Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I have a comment and two final questions. Our remit is very different from that of the Committee of Public Accounts, especially given its focus on the Accounting Officers and the finances. In fairness, Deputy McAuliffe has a dual role. We spent a lot of time in private session in the previous committee trying to work out our best approach to this. Our big concern is housing and homeless policy and to ensure the organisations entrusted with that work do the very best by the people who receive those services. I do think, therefore, that at a later stage it would be good for Mr. O'Brien to have the opportunity to come back to us regarding policy points of view, and not to repeat the grilling at the Committee of Public Accounts because we are a much more relaxed group of people than that committee, important as its function is. I just want to put that on the record, because I think there is value in some of the wider issues being discussed later, particularly concerning the lessons that can be learned to ensure no other service ever ends up in the same position again.

Turning to my two specific questions, obviously the bailout, or the loan as we now call it, the trust received from the Department came with a set of conditions. How many of those conditions have yet to be met and will Mr. O'Brien highlight some of the key ones? At the centre of this situation was the fact that the Peter McVerry Trust almost went bust and, therefore, the financial stability of the organisation is key to its future. How financially stable is the trust? If Mr. O'Brien were to put a rough percentage on it, what is left to go before it would be possible for him to come before the committee and tell us all the financial challenges have been properly addressed and the trust is on a fully stable financial footing going forward?